Body Composition Scales - drop in muscle, up in fat?!?

[VikingMermaid]

Hi, I’m looking for some advice please.

I’ve always been strong and sporty (I’m short and put muscle on easy) and been doing a lot of powerlifting.

With lockdown, I’ve changed focus (no gym access). I’ve been eating healthy, working out, using Fitness Pal on a calorie deficit and biking 60-90mins a day, looking to drop muscle and fat.

I’ve lost a kilo in a month... I’ve also been trying body composition scales out of curiosity and... the scales say I’ve dropped 1.5kgs of muscle in a month... but I’ve somehow put on 1kg of fat?!
I know I can’t spot reduce but my biggest goal is to drop belly fat, so the fat gain sucks.

Has anyone had the same problem or can give me advice please? Should I just step away from the scales?

[SuffolkPunch]

Seriously, forget those things. They should not even be allowed to say they can measure BF%.

If you didn't get weaker, chances are your muscle mass is just the same. If anything, they react most to short term changes in fluid retention.

[Eternalstuden79]

Body composition scales measure bio-impedance. That means they are a great measure of your hydration and not a lot else.

If you think that muscle and body water conduct electricity but fat does not, a change in your body fluid content will show as a loss of muscle and a gain of fat.

In essence these things are snake oil.

You want to know how fat you are look in a mirror, if you want to see how much you have lost take measurements, and record them with a photo. Then you can look back after a month and compare.

[ClimberTrav]

For me, the BIA scale is convenient, and so I track from it. It's a tool and has its value and limitations. It is most useful when you consider the data be relatively accurate over a long term, and not absolutely accurate over a short term.

If my attachment worked, you'll see my charts from my scale, over the past 6 months. If you smooth out the spikes, it has a very high correlation to my reality, but there are also a couple of stretches of data showing remarkable ups and downs, which never really happened. It sounds like you're doing the right things. Hang in there and the data will smooth out.

[Luclin999]

Use your scale to track your weight. Ignore any other statistics that it gives you.

Bio-impedance is wildly inaccurate for tracking body fat as the results will vary with hydration, salinity, and even how "moist" your skin is when you get on the scale.

For example, my scale once told me that I had dropped just just a little over 3% BF over the course of a 90 minute bike ride, outdoors in the summer heat.

So yeah... basically worthless for BF measuring.

[CommitmentRulz]

Seriously, forget those things. They should not even be allowed to say they can measure BF%.

This ^^^.

https://weightology.net/the-pitfalls...impedance-bia/

[BrownBear1968]

Hi, I’m looking for some advice please.

I’ve always been strong and sporty (I’m short and put muscle on easy) and been doing a lot of powerlifting.

With lockdown, I’ve changed focus (no gym access). I’ve been eating healthy, working out, using Fitness Pal on a calorie deficit and biking 60-90mins a day, looking to drop muscle and fat.

I’ve lost a kilo in a month... I’ve also been trying body composition scales out of curiosity and... the scales say I’ve dropped 1.5kgs of muscle in a month... but I’ve somehow put on 1kg of fat?!
I know I can’t spot reduce but my biggest goal is to drop belly fat, so the fat gain sucks.

Has anyone had the same problem or can give me advice please? Should I just step away from the scales?

I have one bia device, Omron HBF-306c. It is a hand-bipolar equipment, so it applies a polynomial prediction to calculate the overall bodyfat based on gender, age and height statistics.
By following standard american diet, with deficit, I dropped from 38 to 29% on 2016.
It worked for me.

--> But today I am doing keto and the device is not responsive as expected. I know this because I am also following waist and hips measurements.

--//--

Here is a motivation video of a getleman who I think is very O-35 representative.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4xwZuIAZJM

He also used Omron HBF-306c and dropped from 34.1% (at 1:11) to 9.3% (at 4:51). But I suggest you guys see the whole video.

[TheRedCardinal]

I'd agree with all of the above comments on ignoring the scales.

Mine say in the last 3 weeks I have gone from 115kg to 111.6kg - which is great.

But my body fat has increased from 33% to 40% in that time - an increase in 7kg of fat.

I'm putting this down to inaccuracy from the scales as I have maintained a 2,000 calorie a day average over that period, and my measurements of chest and waist/stomach show small decreases.

[TheRedCardinal]

This ^^^.

https://weightology.net/the-pitfalls...impedance-bia/

This is a great article, thanks!

[brit-iron]

If you want a ball park figure just get some of those cheap calipers on ebay. Or go by the mirror. Those fancy scales aren't great.